Revision of the Litoria watjulumensis (Anura: Pelodryadidae) group from the Australian monsoonal tropics, including the resurrection of L. spaldingi

Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4933 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-240
Author(s):  
STEPHEN C. DONNELLAN ◽  
SARAH R. CATALANO ◽  
STEPHEN PEDERSON ◽  
KIEREN J. MITCHELL ◽  
AIDAN SUHENDRAN ◽  
...  

We show that the Wotjulum frog, Litoria watjulumensis (Copland, 1957), comprises two deeply divergent mitochondrial DNA lineages that are also reciprocally monophyletic for a nuclear gene locus and have discrete distributions. The taxa are differentiated in multivariate analysis of shape but show no appreciable differences in colour and pattern. The two taxa differ substantially in the degree of female biased sexual size dimorphism, with the western taxon showing considerably more pronounced dimorphism. We subsequently resurrect Litoria (Hyla) spaldingi (Hosmer, 1964) for populations from east of the Daly River system in the Northern Territory through to western Queensland and restrict L. watjulumensis to populations from the Kimberley region of north-western Australia and the Victoria River system of the western Northern Territory. The complex advertisement call of L. spaldingi is described for the first time. 

Zootaxa ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 1334 (1) ◽  
pp. 45 ◽  
Author(s):  
RAFE M. BROWN ◽  
STEPHEN J. RICHARDS ◽  
JEET SUKUMARAN ◽  
JOHANNES FOUFOPOULOS

We describe a new species of forest frog in the genus Platymantis from New Britain Island, Bismark Archipelago, Papua New Guinea. The new species is a morphologically cryptic form that has masqueraded for almost four decades under the name P. schmidti (formerly P. papuensis schmidti, Brown & Tyler, 1968). The new species is microsympatric with the geographically widespread P. schmidti at two known localities. We diagnose the new species on the basis of its distinctive advertisement call and slight but consistent differences in body size and proportions. Calling males of the new species appear to prefer more elevated perches than do males of P. schmidti and the new species may exhibit a greater extent of sexual size dimorphism.


2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 419-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Vargas-Salinas

AbstractTo find out the main cause of the sexual size dimorphism (SSD) in the Cuban treefrog Osteopilus septentrionalis, I studied between April 2002 and April 2004 the breeding behavior and survival of individuals in a population localized in north-western Puerto Rico, West Indies. This species is an explosive breeder whose breeding events lasted one night. Mature females were larger in body size (snout vent-length, SVL) (range 57-107 mm) than mature males (range 41.5-67 mm), and exhibited higher levels of survival (males: 0.72, 95% confidence interval 0.66-0.78; females 0.91, 95% confidence interval 0.88-0.93). Females can increase their reproductive success if they breed with large SVL because large females can lay more eggs than small females. In contrast, the reproductive success of males was not enhanced by large SVL because the mating pattern was random and non-assortative by SVL. Thus, for males it could be better to start to breed with small SVL, and participate in all possible breeding events, which implies high mortality risk. As a consequence, the SSD in O. septentrionalis may be due to fecundity advantages in females, and because males tend to die before reaching larger SVL.


Fishes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 79
Author(s):  
Binbin Shan ◽  
Yan Liu ◽  
Changping Yang ◽  
Yuan Li ◽  
Liangming Wang ◽  
...  

Sexual growth dimorphism is a common phenomenon in teleost fish. However, the mechanism of this complex phenomenon remains unclear. The fine-patterned puffer (Takifugu poecilonotus; Temminck and Schlegel, 1850) exhibits female-biased sexual size dimorphism similar to other pufferfish. In this study, the transcriptomes of female and male T. poecilonotus were sequenced, 285.95 million raw read pairs were generated from sequence libraries. After identification and assembly, a total of 149,814 nonredundant unigenes were obtained with an N50 length of 3538 bp. Of these candidates, 122,719 unigenes (81.91% of the total) were successfully annotated with multiple public databases. The comparison analysis revealed 10,385 unigenes (2034 in females and 8351 in males) were differentially expressed between different sexes of T. poecilonotus. Then, we identified many candidate growth- and sex-related genes, including Dmrt1, Sox3, Spatas, Prl/Prlr, fabps, Ghr, and Igf1r. In addition to these well-known genes, Fabp4 was identified for the first time in fish. Furthermore, 68,281 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) loci were screened and identified in the transcriptome sequence of T. poecilonotus. The results of our study could provide valuable information on growth- and sex-associated genes and facilitate further exploration of the molecular mechanism of sexual growth dimorphism.


PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Fernández-Montraveta ◽  
Jesús Marugán-Lobón

Common scientific wisdom assumes that spider sexual dimorphism (SD) mostly results from sexual selection operating on males. However, testing predictions from this hypothesis, particularly male size hyperallometry, has been restricted by methodological constraints. Here, using geometric morphometrics (GMM) we studied for the first time sex-differential shape allometry in a spider (Donacosa merlini, Araneae: Lycosidae) known to exhibit the reverse pattern (i.e., male-biased) of spider sexual size dimorphism. GMM reveals previously undetected sex-differential shape allometry and sex-related shape differences that are size independent (i.e., associated to the y-intercept, and not to size scaling). Sexual shape dimorphism affects both the relative carapace-to-opisthosoma size and the carapace geometry, arguably resulting from sex differences in both reproductive roles (female egg load and male competition) and life styles (wandering males and burrowing females). Our results demonstrate that body portions may vary modularly in response to different selection pressures, giving rise to sex differences in shape, which reconciles previously considered mutually exclusive interpretations about the origins of spider SD.


2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Otavio Augusto Vuolo Marques ◽  
Ronaldo Fernandes ◽  
Roberta Richard Pinto

Abstract The morphometry and diet of two sympatric species of Chironius (C. flavolineatus and C. quadricarinatus) from Brazilian Cerrado are described. The two snake species differ in external morphology, as Chironius flavolineatus was the largest species (body, tail and eyes) whereas C. quadricarinatus the heaviest. Each species also showed marked sexual size dimorphism. In terms of dietary ecology, both species feed exclusively on frogs with a heavy preference for hylids and may have tendency to eat small items, as noticed in other colubrine species. These two snake species showed a brownish colour pattern and exhibited no ontogenetic variation, suggesting that juveniles and adults use similar substrates. Chironius flavolineatus and C. quadricarinatus present a semi-arboreal habit, with active foraging behaviour, feeding in the ground most of time. Chironius flavolineatus uses higher vegetation for resting and, based on morphological results, seems to be more arboreal than C. quadricarinatus.


Author(s):  
Rachael Y. Dudaniec ◽  
Alexander R. Carey ◽  
Erik I. Svensson ◽  
Bengt Hansson ◽  
Chuan Ji Yong ◽  
...  

Biologia ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 70 (9) ◽  
pp. 1228-1233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ehsan Sanaei ◽  
Marjan Seiedy ◽  
Farzaneh Momtazi

Abstract Body size dimorphism between genders is a commonly observed phenomenon in insects, usually manifested in larger female body size. Sexual Size Dimorphism (SSD) varies from species to species, the degree and direction influenced by certain evolutionary pressures. Intraspecific variation in SSD may also occur between populations. The Hypera postica (Gyllenhal, 1813) is a well-known alfalfa plant pest that shows a degree of morphological divergence in its populations. The female alfalfa weevils are very fecund and have a larger body size compared to males. To improve our knowledge on magnitude and direction of SSD in alfalfa weevil, we studied 200 specimens of H. postica from four Iranian populations (Karaj1, Karaj2, Tuyserkan and Jovein). 10 morphological variables from three external anatomic parts (pronotum, elytra and rostrum) and 45 ratio characters were statistically analyzed in order to determine the amount of SSD in Iranian populations. In addition we investigated for morphological divergence pattern in mentioned populations. The results of this study show that a low degree of morphological divergence occurs in Iranian populations. Measured variables indicate that the SSD pattern of H. postica is compatible with the Rensch’s rule, and is related to high fecundity of females and a lack of strong sexual selection. Also it is mentioned that the larger rostrum in females may correspond to its unique role in egg laying.


2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hasan Baneh ◽  
Mostafa Ghaderi-Zefrehei ◽  
Raana Pouryaei ◽  
Ajoy Mandal

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